Medications may be packaged in various forms including in bottles, jars and other packages. A unit dose package is one common form in which medication is packaged. In this regard, a unit dose package refers to a unit dose of medication for one or more oral solids of the same or different strength, form or type that has been sealed in the package. One example of a unit dose package is a unit dose blister in which the medication may be disposed in a vinyl and foil package in which the vinyl defines a cavity that generally conforms to the shape of the medication. The vinyl may be sealed to the foil which offers a relatively flat support panel on which information relating to the medication may be printed, for example, on the opposite side from the vinyl cavity that houses the medication.
FIG. 1 illustrates several examples of unit dose blisters. As shown, a unit dose blister may include a support panel having opposed first and second sides 10, 12 with the unit dose medication 14, e.g., one or more oral solids, being positioned proximate the first side of the support panel and an identification code 16, e.g., a bar code or text including any number and combination of alphanumeric characters, including information identifying the unit dose medication being presented on the second side of the support panel.
When unit dose medications are packaged as unit dose blisters, they are typically packaged with several unit dose blisters per blister card. Each unit dose blister is connected to the other unit dose blisters of the blister card, but perforations are generally defined between the unit dose blisters to permit each unit dose blister to be separated from the remainder of the blister card. A singulated blister is one that has been separated from a blister card, generally along a perforation.
As described above and as depicted in FIG. 1, the medication of a unit dose blister is housed in a contoured cavity defined, for example, by a vinyl or plastic housing. As such, a unit dose blister may have two distinct orientations, namely, a first orientation in which the unit dose blister rests upon the cavity with the support member being positioned upwardly and a second orientation in which the unit dose blister is supported upon the support member with the cavity extending upwardly therefrom. In a number of instances, it would be desirable to determine the orientation of a unit dose blister, that is, to determine whether the unit dose blister is resting the upon the cavity that houses the medication or upon the support member.
One application in which it would be desirable to determine the orientation of a unit dose blister relates to the handling of a unit dose blister by a robotic system. In this regard, robotic systems have been developed to facilitate medication retrieval and distribution. One example of such a robotic system is the ROBOT-Rx® system provided by McKesson Automation Inc. and described by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,468,110, 5,593,267 and 5,880,443, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The ROBOT-Rx® system is a stationary robotic system that automates the drug storing, dispensing, returning, restocking and crediting process. Unit dose blisters are generally repackaged in bags to be able to be handled by a robotic system, such as the ROBOT-Rx® system, although other robotic systems may be developed to handle unit dose blisters in their raw form. Typically, a robotic system works with single doses of medications, such as unit dose packages including, for example, unit dose blisters.
With respect to unit dose blisters, the unit dose blisters are generally singulated, that is, the unit dose blisters are generally separated from other unit dose blisters of a blister card, and then stored in trays or other containers dedicated to a particular dosage of a predetermined medication for subsequent access by the robotic system. The tray or other container for a respective medication may be stored in a predefined location such that the robotic system is thereafter able to access the tray or other container and obtain a prescribed number of unit dose blisters of the respective medication in response to instructions dictating the dispensation of the medication.
In some instances, the medication that is dispensed for a patient, such as in a hospital, nursing home or other health care facility, is not consumed and is, instead, returned to the pharmacy. In some settings, for example, up to about 20% of the medication that is dispensed for patients in a health care facility is eventually returned. Upon receiving the returned medication, the medication is generally restocked, such as by placing the unit dose blisters in the respective trays or other containers that house the respective medication.
From at least an efficiency and a cost-effectiveness standpoint, it would be desirable for the medication that is returned to be restocked in an automated fashion. For example, it would be desirable for a robotic system to individually engage a unit dose blister that has been returned, to identify the contents, such as by reading the associated text or barcode, and to then load the unit dose blister in the tray or other container that houses the respective medication. However, because of the two distinct orientations of a unit dose blister, that is, with the cavity facing either upwards or downwards, it would be useful to be able to determine the orientation of the unit dose blister since a robotic system may be able to more efficiently or reliably pick unit dose blisters in only one of the two orientations. Indeed, in the absence of being able to determine the orientation of a unit dose blister, singulated unit dose blisters may need to be picked and placed into the trays or other containers by technicians, thereby potentially increasing the associated costs.